Gerrard was still trying to gather his senses when seconds later Juan Veron hit a dipping effort just wide of his other post.

Veron was enjoying himself and a minute later he curled a free-kick just wide of the target.

The Argentine international adjusted his sights after these two misses and midway through the half he made no mistake when he opened the scoring with his first goal for United.

The £28.1million midfielder played a one-two with Keane before collecting the ball on his chest and firing past Gerrard.

Everton's defence was being pulled all over the Old Trafford pitch and Gerrard saved from Cole's header following Fortune's left-wing cross.

The inevitable second goal duly came five minutes before half-time when Gary Neville found Luke Chadwick on the right from a throw-in and he slid the ball across to Cole, who scored from six yards out.

It was almost too easy for United and at the other end debutant Laurent Blanc looked like he had played his entire career with the Reds, while defensive partner Wes Brown was in imperious form.

Half-time offered Everton little respite and within 20 seconds of the restart, United were 3-0 up.

Yorke nodded down Neville's ball into Fortune's path and the South African international burst through what remained of the visitors' defence to beat Gerrard.

It was now a question of how many and it could have been four when Cole beautifully controlled a lofted pass only to shoot high and wide of the target.

Everton gave themselves a glimmer of hope midway through the half when Scot Gemmill caught United's defence flat-footed and squared the ball for Kevin Campbell to pull one goal back.

Duncan Ferguson should have reduced the arrears yet further when Campbell found him unmarked just inside the United box, but he miscontrolled the ball and Keane got back to dispossess him.

Ferguson tried to make amends and he thought he had beaten Fabien Barthez only for the Frenchman, who had done nothing up to that point, to touch his shot on to the post.

That was the end of Everton's brief resistance and in the final minute substitute Beckham scored to seal the victory.